Nineteen offers were made on the property, according to The Evening Standard, but
54-year-old Robin Swailes was the top bidder. He paid £713,823
for the property, which works out at £24,000 per square foot.

Swailes, who runs North Oxford Property Services, told The Daily Mail that he used his pension
to fund the purchase because he feels he will get a better return
from the property.

"Everyone dreams of owning a detached house in central London,"
he said. "It is small but beautiful and we're going to renovate
it and use it as a pied-a-terre."

Despite being valued at nearly three times the average UK house
price, according to the Evening Standard, Douglas
& Gordon said the property was "in need of complete
re-modernisation."

The home is situated on Britten Street, an eight-minute walk to
both South Kensington and Sloane Square stations.

The front door takes you into a worn reception
room.

Douglas
& Gordon

It leads to a tiny, run down looking kitchen and equally
tired shower room.

Business Insider requested images of both rooms, but
Douglas & Gordon said it didn't have high-resolution images
available.

Douglas
& Gordon

The stairs lead to the only bedroom. It overlooks St
Luke’s Gardens, a leafy park with a church, but the carpet and
walls appear to be in need of an upgrade.

Douglas
& Gordon

Once refurbished, the home could be worth up to £1 million,
according to Douglas & Gordon sales manager Ed McCulloch.

He said the company had a large number of people expressing an
interest within a week of the property being posted. Within a
month, 100 people had viewed it, according to The Daily Mail.

"People are looking for something that captures their
imagination," McCulloch said. "Once it is done up, someone might
pay as much as £1 million for it, we don’t know — it is unique."